Just 11 months after the Paris climate talks, the resulting treaty has come into force. The rapid ratification looks set to heap even more pressure on Australia to come up with a credible climate policy.

Global climate negotiators come to Marrakesh to talk about how to transfer money from rich to poor countries for climate adaptation, among other issues.
leungchitak/flickrNovember 3, 2016

The much-hyped 2009 Copenhagen climate summit yielded only a flimsy accord. But, as Nick Rowley writes in part 2 of his three-part essay on the 2015 Paris climate talks, there are several reasons why this year won't see another flop.

The US has formally submitted its post-2020 climate target to the UN.
EPA/Jim Lo ScalzoApril 1, 2015

From the 1950s until the 1990s, nuclear weapons were viewed as the greatest threat to human life on the planet. Jonathan Schell, whose book The Fate of the Earth (1998) perhaps best crystallised the danger…

It would be a stretch to call the latest climate talks in Peru a raging success.
EPA/COP20December 15, 2014

The UN’s climate negotiations in Lima (known as COP20) over the past fortnight were held in a military compound normally used by the Peruvian Army. Each day, negotiators at the COP passed an obstacle course…

Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop are bidding to repair the government’s tarnished reputation on climate - but have they pledged enough?
AAP Image/Lukas CochDecember 10, 2014

At the United Nations Lima climate summit, Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop has pledged A$200 million over four years to the Green Climate Fund, which seeks to raise US$100 billion (A$120 billion…

Third time lucky: after a deal between Clive Palmer (right) and his Senate PUPs with the government, the carbon tax has finally been repealed.
Alan Porritt/AAPJuly 14, 2014

Society generally has a clear idea of what constitutes a crime, and those in positions of power are usually held to very high standards. Politicians charged with making decisions on the needs of society…

The Mount Thorley Warkworth mine in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales produces coal for both electricity and steel-making.
Lock the Gate Alliance/FlickrJuly 2, 2014

At the recent midyear UN climate negotiations in Bonn, an unprecedented 60 countries (including Germany) called for a total phase-out of fossil fuels by 2050, as part of a global agreement on climate change…